Apparatus for feeding spinning material to a spinning machine



RYOHEI TSUZUKI APPARATUS FOR FEEDING SPINNING MATERIAL TO A SPINNING MACHINE Junev 10, 1969 Filed Dec. 29. 1966 I FIG. 3

FIG.4

United States Patent Us. or. 57-36 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for feeding spinning material in the form of roving or sliver strands of fiber frorn packages in an airconditioned room at a level above a spinning machine. The spinning material is fed through a plurality of vertical, upstanding feed pipes each provided with a curved outlet conduit in which a spring-biased, pivoted plate applies pressure to the spinning material transversely of the path of travel of the spinning material and a restriction in the curved conduit control are effective to cause fiber alignment and to cause a uniform tension draft to be applied to the spinning material passing through the outlet conduit.

The present invention relates to a method for feeding spinning material to a spinning machine and its apparatus, and particularly, relates to a method and apparatus for feeding in a uniform condition the sliver or roving reserved in the air conditioned room to the respective spinning machine installed in another room.

The spinning method described above have been patented as US. Patent No. 3,070,948 granted to another invention of the applicant. The present invention provides a method for feeding spinning material to the respective spinning machine and its apparatus, and is particularly available for the spinning method according to the U8. Patent No. 3,070,948.

Generally, in the conventional spinning method, the spinning material such as sliver or roving, are reserved in the spinning room where the spinning machines are installed. Consequently, Regain of sliver or roving varies according to the humidity of the atmosphere of the spining room which is diflicult to maintain in a uniform condition even if the so-called air-conditioning method is applied. The variation in Regain of sliver or roving causes an undesirable spinning condition, that is, increase in yarn breakage during the spinning operation due to the fleece of fibers winding around the draft roller as a result of the reduction in strength of yarn having small regain, etc. Moreover, when the humidity of the spinning room becomes low, the moisture in the sliver or roving vaporizes, and consequently, the slivers or rovings become loose to cause production of fly. In such a dry condition, the spinability of the supplied material is reduced considerably. Furthermore, when the sliver or roving maintained in the above-mentioned dry condition makes contact with other substances such as guide rods, some parts of the spinning machine, etc. there is a possibility of producing hangnailed fibers on the slivers or rovings, which obstruct uniform and smooth drafting action of sliver or roving and lower the yarn quality.

On the other hand, when the sliver or roving is maintained in an atmosphere of high humidity, Regain of sliver or roving becomes excessive, consequently, fibers of the sliver or roving become sticky and will have a strong tendency of winding around the draft roller and increasing yarn breakage during the spinning operation. Moreover, an excess regain condition of sliver or roving causes irregular draft of sliver or roving which increase the unevenness of yarn thickness.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a A method for supplying slivers or rovings having uniform Regain to the respective spinning units so as to obtain high spinning efliciency.

An object of the invention is to provide a method for feeding slivers or rovings so that production of fly and nailhanged fibers attached to the slivers or rovings are prevented so as to produce uniform and good quality yarn.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a control method and apparatus for controlling fiber alignment of spinning materials supplied from supplying sources disposed to upper floor room.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a novel method for feeding slivers or rovings to the respective spinning machine and its apparatus which can be used for short-cut spinning for reducing the productioncost.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the ensuing description with reference to the accompanying drawings to which the scope of the invention is in no way limited.

FIG. 1 is an elevation side view of the feeding apparatus according to the invention.

FIG. 2A is a perspective view of a control member of the feeding apparatus shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 2B is a sectional side view of the control member of feeding apparatus taken along line IIB-IIB in FIG. 2A,

FIG. 2C is a sectional side view of a modified control member of in the feeding apparatus of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the control member. taken along line IIIHI in FIG. 2B,

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the control member, take along line IV-IV in FIG. 2B.

In FIG. 1, an embodiment of a method for feeding sliver to a spinning unit of a ring spinning frame according to the invention is shown. A sliver 3 is reserved in a can 2 disposed in an upstair or upper room 1 whose atmosphere is always maintained in a uniform condition. The sliver 3 reserved in the can 2 is fed to a draft part 5 of the spinning frame so as to produce yarn 6 which is twisted and wound around a bobbin 7 supported by a spindle 8 rotating at high speed. The sliver 3 is fed to feed pipe 4 by way of circumferentially grooved guide rollers 9, 10 and then goes to a trumpet 11 disposed bebind the draft part 5. The guide rollers 9, 10 are rotated positively so as to feed the sliver 3 uniformly. A control member 12 is disposed to the bottom end portion of the feed pipe 4. As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, 3 and 4, the control member 12 comprises an upper opened portion 12a connected with the bottom end of the feed pipe 4, a

curved outlet conduit 12b connected to the bottom portion of the upper opened portion 12a. as one piece, a cover plate 12c covering the opened portion of the conduit 12b and having an inwardly projecting portion 120! so as to form a channelled, space or restriction 14 at the lower portion of the control member 12 and a pressure plate He is pivoted to the lower portion of the upper portion 12a by a pin 13 as shown in the drawing. The above-mentioned control member 12 is disposed in such a way that the bottom aperture 15 faces the trumpet 11 of the draft unit 5, so as lead sliver or roving 3 delivered from the control member 12 to the inlet of the trumpet 11.

The sliver or roving 3 passes through the tube 4 and enters the control member 12, and is kept in a free condition at the first spaced portion 16 for a while. As the sliver or roving passes through the pipe 4 in a zig-zag condition, it is necessary to eliminate the undesirable tendency of fiber to curl which bestows an irregular draft of fibers. The above-mentioned reserving of sliver or roving 3 is useful for eliminating the tendency of fiber to curl and while the sliver or roving is being reserved in the spare 16, it is pressed by the com pression plate 12e. Therefore, when the sliver or roving is delivered to the draft part 5, fibers of sliver or roving reserved in the space 16 are led to the channel portion 14 by transversal pressure and when the sliver or roving passes through the narrowest portion of the channel 14, the sliver or roving 3 which is in a relaxed condition in the reserve Space 16 is compressed and straightened thereby the individual fibers composing the sliver or roving 3 are provided with relative longitudinal displacements opposing the frictional resistance between adjacent fibers by the transversal pressure produced by the passing of sliver or roving through the narrow portion of channel 14, that is, uniform tension draft of sliver or roving is produced while passing through the narrow portion of the channel 14. Consequently, the straightening of individual fibers and parallel arrangement of the respective fibers of the supplied sliver or roving can be improved by passing the sliver or roving through the control member 12. The above-mentioned control action of fiber alignment is obtained gradually by decreasing gradually the transversal spaces between the conduit 12b and the inner surface of the cover plate 120 as shown in the drawing of FIGS. 2A and 2B.

Referring to FIG. 2C, to obtain the positive control effect by the pressure plate 12a, a helical spring 17 is mounted on pin 18 pivotably disposed to the pressure plate He in such a Way that an end of the spring 17 presses the end of the pressure plate 12c and the other end of the spring 17 presses the lower portion of the upper portion 12a so as to always press the pressure plate 12e by which the pressure plate 12a is positively turned inward.

The control member 12 forms a tube, consequently, slivers or rovings 3 fed from the reserve can 2 are always prevented from becoming loosened to develop hangnails by contacting with machine parts of the spinning frame or other parts to maintain the supplied slivers or roving in the best condition for drafting.

The method for supplying and feeding sliver to the respective ring spinning frame according to the invention is useful for realizing continuous spinning of so-called sliver to yarn system at high operating efficiency because the most stable spinning condition can be easily obtained according to the present sliver supplying and feeding system, moreover, the present method of the invention provides a low-cost method by the sliver feeding method which can use very large sliver cans and less yarn breakage during spinning operation can be obtained by uniform humidity control of supplied sliver.

In the above-mentioned description, the spinning materials are reserved in a uniformly air-conditioned room on the upper floor but in case the method of the present invention is applied to spinning mills which do not need 4 so-called air-conditioning, it is still useful for improving yarn quality and reducing production cost.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for feeding a spinning material comprising sliver or roving to a spinning machine, said apparatus comprising, means defining a feed path for said spinning material along which said feed material travels for delivery to a spinning machine, a curved feed outlet conduit in said path open at both ends, means defining an inwardly projecting portion in said feed conduit defining a restriction in said feed path, a movably mounted pressure plate disposed upstream of said restriction for applying pressure on said spinning material while travelling through said feed outlet conduit jointly cooperating with said constriction so that fibers in said spinning material are aligned in parallelism and fed with a uniform tension draft, means movably mounting said pressure plate for movement in said feed conduit, and means constantly biasing said pressure plate in a direction for constantly bearing against said spinning material applying pressure transverse to the path of travel thereof and tending to align the spinning material with said restriction.

2. Apparatus for feeding a spinning material comprising sliver or roving to a spinning machine according to claim 1, in which said pressure plate is pivotally mounted in said curved feed conduit, said means movably mounting said pressure plate comprising pivot means pivotally mounting said pressure plate, and in which said means biasing said plate comprise-s a spring.

3. Apparatus for feeding a spinning material comprising sliver or roving to a spinning machine according to claim 1, in which said feed path comprises a feed pipe in which a reserve of said spinning material is contained.

4. Apparatus for feeding spinning materials comprising sliver or roving to a spinning machine, said apparatus comprising, a plurality of upstanding feed pipes each receiving a spinning material individually for advancement longitudinally therethrough, for each feed pipe feed control means disposed at a discharge end of each feed pipe for receiving spinning material from a respective feed pipe and delivering the spinning material therefrom longitudinally and for controlling fiber alignment comprising pressure-applying means constantly applying pressure transverse to the longitudinally travelling spinning material and comprising means defining a restriction through which said spinning material travels longitudinally downstream of said pressure-applying means for effectively causing fibers in said spinning material travelling through said restriction to have parallel alignment and a substantially uniform tension draft applied thereto.

5. Apparatus for feeding spinning materials comprising sliver or roving to a spinning machine according to claim 4, in which said control means disposed at a discharge end of each pipe comprises, for each feed pipe a curved conduit, a cover plate on said curved conduit having a projection extending inwardly into said conduit defining said restriction.

6. Apparatus for feeding spinning materials comprising sliver or roving to a spinning machine according to claim 5, in which said pressure-applying means comprises a pivotally mounted plate having a portion within said curved conduit and extending generally in a direction toward the downstream travel of said spinning material, means constantly biasing said pivotally mounted plate in a direction for causing said portion to apply said pressure to said spinning material in a direction transverse to its longitudinal direction of travel thereof.

7. Apparatus for feeding spinning materials comprising sliver or roving to a spinning machine according to claim 6, in which each curved conduit comprises a portion upstream of said pressure-applying plate for containing a reserve of the spinning material.

8. Apparatus for feeding spinning materials comprising sliver or roving to a spinning machine according to claim 7, in which said feed pipes are disposed upstanding vertically and at a level higher than said spinning machine, and including driven feed rollers for delivering spinning material from respective packages of spinning material to the individual feed pipes.

References Cited UNITED 6 FOREIGN PATENTS 509,708 9/ 1952 Belgium. 743,657 1/1933 France. 882,068 7/1953 Germany.

STANLEY N. GILREATH, Primary Examiner.

STATES PATENTS WERNER H. SCHROEDER, Assistant Examiner.

Stone et a1. 5736 Tsuzuki 57-36 US. Cl. X.R. Naegeli 57-36 XR 10 19-288; 57l06 Noguera 57--34 

